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Friday, June 28, 2013

"Games People Play" by The Alan Parsons Project

Pop Bits: After four successful albums, this studio group mainly consisting of Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson ended up having some tense negotiations with their label Arista. But both parties came to an agreement and The Project released their next album "The Turn of a Friendly Card." Arista wisely made a good choice in retaining the group as this first single became their biggest hit at the time and the album became their second platinum success. Although Woolfson would eventually sing some songs on the group's albums, they typically had several singers provide the vocals on their tracks. This song features a lead vocal by Lenny Zakatek, who also sang on other Project songs like "Damned If I Do" (#27, 1979) and "I Wouldn't Wanna Be Like You" (#36, 1977). The album also received a Grammy nod for Best Engineered Recording.

ReduxReview: With that sequenced keyboard lick and the opening "where do we go from here" line, this song is instantly recognizable. This is one of their most solid rock songs and should have gone Top 10. This is the point where I started to become a huge APP fan and their work was influential in me wanting to go to college for music production (which I did).

ReduxRating: 9/10

Trivia: Before meeting Woolfson, Parsons was already a successful engineer. He was assistant engineer on The Beatles' "Abbey Road" and "Let It Be" albums and he was the engineer on one of the most famous rock albums of all time, Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon." Woolfson became Parsons' manager and Parsons went on to do work with groups like Pilot, The Hollies, and Ambrosia (for which he received a Grammy nod for his engineering work).